As of Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker Patch 6.3 there are 5 ultimates in the game. However, being the hardest content in the game not a lot of players seem interested in participating. This raises the question, why does Square Enix make Ultimates in FFXIV?
Music used: One Small Step (Mare Lametorium FFXIV) Masayoshi Soken
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Somehow managed to get here so early, the HD version isn't done processing yet. XD
Making ultimates lets SE make a little bit more easier savage fights and really let their imagination go wild with mechs and systems in ultimate, looking how savage got easier in Stormblood and we got first ultimates also in Stormblood, my quess is that SE wanted more people to be able to conquer savage raids easier but also wanted better and more hardcore players to still have hard content, i started to play in Shadowbringers but looking old videos and the difficulty of Heavensward trials and raids looked pretty interesting, sure players have gotten better at the game with time but its really easy to jump into savage and get a clear nowadays.
Cheating in TOP was sad but it was expected, im 99% sure SE will still keep doing ultimates even tho this happened, but this problem arises everytime a new ultimate comes out, remember the drama in DSR? this is just a bigger uproar because they did not log or stream/record the progress publicly and it was japanese group, a player base that is infamous for bullying and calling out plugin users even tho there is quite a lot of plugin users among them.
Yoshi-P:s statement could be used on anything really, but because its the hardest content in the game and only the best are expected to clear it, it has the highest impact when it comes to cheating, people cheat in savage, extremes and even normal modes, but a lot of people don't care because its not the hardest content in the game.
There is no solution to this, if they stop making ultimates they will anger the hardcore groups and them leaving the game is pretty high possibility, if they would stop making ultimates they would probably start making savage and extremes a little bit harder, this would anger all raider players as it would be too hard for casuals and mid-core players and still too easy and not satistying for high-midcore and hardcore players. Banning plugins is also not an option, as this will anger a LOT of players, believe what you want, a lot of RP:ers, raiders and even housing players use plugins.
I am a casual, I only play about 4 hours a week and i can confidently say without ultimates I'd be subbed for 6 months less a year. Ultimates are something my group works on between raid tiers. Without that, we would have nothing challenging to work on. It's very likely if I unsub for an extended period of time one day I just won't bother returning. I think ultimates are important even though I have only managed to clear 1 of them. ^^